Seaforth is currently working with a partner to produce real-time data analysis for a large multinational procurement team. The aim is to support their team with analysis on specific spend categories in an instant. This will enable their procurement team to easily identify buying patterns in their data and highlight product duplicates or wasted spend.

By using data analysis in conjunction with a category planning tool such as Category Dojo. It will allow companies to identify and compare savings opportunities whilst taking into account factors such as time scales, potential savings and complexity.

For more information on how you can benefit from Spend Data Analysis, go to www.myseaforth.com

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Eddie McGeachie offered to write a guest blog for Market Dojo. Eddie is the co-founder of Seaforth Analytical Services. They are data analytics specialists providing spend analysis on big data. Eddie’s background comes from years working at Lenovo, Xchanging, IBM and his experience with numerous blue chip companies.

Big Data Analysis - Past, Present and Future

Big data analysis is soon to be a revolutionary step in transforming the digital world. We will soon be able to interpret, analyse and understand large volumes of data in real-time. With the latest developments in advanced text mining, we can now analyse half a million characters in less than two minutes. This allows us for an almost immediate in-depth spend category analysis, which in the past may have required months of work on behalf of a procurement professional to analyse.

My early involvement with spend analysis started over 10 years ago, when I was working at Lenovo, we discussed the possibilities of using spend analysis and the future role of supply chain analytics in the company. Our initial work became the focal point of using Spend Analytics within the company, leading to immediate changes that led to Lenovo becoming a Gartner Supply Chain Top 25.

Spend Analysis - The Present

Currently, spend analysis is focusing on indirect spend (the purchase of goods or services that are not directly incorporated into the manufacture of a product) as typically this would be the area for the greatest potential for savings.

This reason for this is that indirect spend is frequently made up of a large number of small transactions across numerous suppliers and because indirect goods and services tend to be more commoditised than their direct spend counterparts. Price tends to be a key differentiator for indirect spend. Whilst quality is typically the key differentiator between suppliers with direct spend.

Big data analysis has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, we now have the ability to easily identify and categorise large volumes of indirect spending. This analysis can now be used to search through commodities which are stable and are unstable. By comparing this data on a large scale, you can understand where a company might be buying at prices that are significantly greater than the market value. With further analysis, it can depict trends of indirect spending, typically highlighting costly maverick spending (purchases that are made outside of agreed contracts) and other potential opportunities for savings.

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

After our responsive design update a couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to go back and collect up a number of smaller changes that have been waiting in the wings. Here are the latest features and enhancements added to the software as requested by customers.

Supplier Onboarding - SIM Dojo

Disable notification when approving supplier

In SIM Dojo, participants are automatically notified when a decision is made that affects their status. However, for some customers this decision may be an internal only workflow change. To prevent participants receiving confusing messages we have added an option to disable the automatic notification.

Hosts can choose not to notify the participant

Remove from groups when approving participants

When re-approving an existing participant, you may wish to change the groups they are associated with. Previously this had to be done from the admin section. Now you can change the participant groups by unticking the groups when approving participants in the individual participant section.

Assigning participants to supplier groups

Email updates to scorers

Subject lines reference the participants company name instead of their name, which is easier for scorers to recognise, especially if they are dealing with a large number of participants.

Live chat support in SIM Dojo

One of our most popular support channels, especially for participants, is live chat. This is now immediately accessible by clicking the button that appears on every page of SIM Dojo.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are used in both Market Dojo and SIM Dojo.

Auto-accept participants

We have changed the default option for ‘auto-accept participants’ to be Yes.

This is usually the right choice and makes for a much better user experience, especially for new users.

Visual feedback on whether questionnaires are complete

It can be hard for participants to keep track of which questionnaires they have submitted, and which are still outstanding. We have added visual feedback on the tabs to show which are finished.

Participants can easily see which questionnaires are finished

Empty sections in questionnaires

Empty sections in questionnaires can be used to give additional information which doesn’t directly relate to a specific section.

A questionnaire including a section with no questions

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

Market Dojo has now rolled out the responsive design for our flagship product, Market Dojo. This is designed to be optimised visually across all computer, smartphone and small tablet devices to maximise the user experience and interface.

Alternatively, you can revert to the old design by going to https://previous.marketdojo.com. Any events created or actions made within the tool on either the responsive design or the old design will be consistent within the platforms.

Screenshot of the existing design for a multi-lined auction

In a short time, the site hosting the existing design will be removed and www.marketdojo.com will only run through the fully implemented responsive design. The responsive design has been built and designed in-house to ensure the consistency of the platform but with a refreshed visual design.

Key features of the Responsive Design

Data is consistent with that used on the live platform

Optimised for all mobile and smartphone devices

Improved reading experience

Enhanced auction analysis

Easy-to-use design

If you wish to continue to use our existing design, just login at https://previous.marketdojo.com and the data will be consistent with that of the tool in the responsive design platform. This functionality will only be available for a limited period of time and if you wish for more information contact us at support@marketdojo.com.

A key focus of the responsive design is giving users a better experience of the tool, offering users the ability to take onboard more information than ever before.

"As the use of mobile devices and tablets continue to grow rapidly, so does the range of devices and screen sizes on which people are using our tools. Our new responsive design allows users to reach critical content faster with a refreshed design that adapts to their device.

"It is only thanks to our fantastically dedicated team and incredible clients that we have been able to do this. We will be eternally grateful for all of those who have given us their continual support and look very much forward to rolling this out to become the live platform."

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Monday, 3 April 2017

With the inaugural Market Dojo Event upcoming on Thursday 6th April, we caught up with presenter Nick Ford. Nick is an Executive Director of Odesma and has over 28 years experience within procurement and supply chain consulting.

What lesson stands out that you have learned in your career?

My biggest learning is that people in businesses often seem to lose a perspective on value for money. People need to treat company money like it is their own. Often they don’t, especially in bigger organisations. Having started my own business, Odesma, I can confirm I treat every penny like it is my own – gone are fancy hotels, high-cost technology solutions, expensive centrally located offices and the like.

What has been the biggest and proudest achievement in your procurement career?

Being involved in setting up Odesma, a successful on-demand Procurement consultancy based on the principles of the cloud (everything drawn from third parties; technology to independent contractors). In our business we have essentially outsourced everything, this has allowed us to start the business with very limited capital and very quickly grow it whilst servicing a range of multinational as well as national customers at competitively, whilst delivering very fast to a high-quality standard.

Which single tool or best practise technique would you implement into any organisation to save money?

Harnessing new or bleeding edge technology. The B2C world is heading towards convergence with B2B. Businesses continue to operate in the old World, whilst the new world now offers solutions on an on-demand call off basis with no tie in at low cost. Freeware / Open Source is prevalent, on demand solutions are readily available ie Google mail, CRM solutions at a fraction of the corporate cost with greater security. New suppliers entering the market offer much stronger easy to use interfaces at a fraction of the current cost.

What are you looking forward to in the Market Dojo event?

I am looking forward to networking with other procurement professionals and meeting up with colleagues, old and new! In addition, it’s great to be able to present and support our partners, Market Dojo with their event.

What are you passionate about?

I am passionate about sport. I love to watch Port Vale F.C play when I get a chance as well as catching up on the horse racing.

What makes Odesma unique?

Our business advisory solutions are founded on experience, expertise and insight, providing mobile resources anywhere in the world. With 100 experience we focus on doing things fast and cost effectively to suit any organisation. Odesma’s flexibility allows us to mobilise our strategy

If you want to find out more, register for the inaugural Market Dojo Event on Thursday 6th April at Stonehouse Court Hotel. Nick Ford will be presenting at the procurement event on the subject of “Using eSourcing to Transform Organisations into Procurement Leaders”

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!